Three Month Ongoing Challenge

Three Month Challenge

The House of Hope has changed over the last ten years. With fewer donations and increased difficulty to obtain long term volunteers, the demands on present staff is continually increasing. Government restrictions on the length of time a person can stay in the country has drastically changed. Even a three month Tourist Visa is not guaranteed. The tensions between Israel and Palestine are more tenuous than ever and House of Hope being in the Palestinian Territories does not help. But things are the way they are and it is still possible for shortterm volunteers to come and spend time here. The primary function of a volunteer is to look after the well being of the special needs and/or blind child. It may include helping them to shower, to dress, to eat properly, to brush their hair, to folding clothes, making beds, doing dishes, making breakfast, laundry, walking them to school, taking them for a leisure walk, supervising a tricycle ride, playing catch and the list goes on. If you have additional skills like light maintenance, or office skills, or good English skills (writing and proof reading), perhaps massage therapy or speech therapy, a teacher or any trade that can aid the children, any opportunity to advance their standard of living is needed. Volunteers are not here to cater to the whims of the clients but to bring them to a place where they can do these things on their own, and that takes time and patience.

An added bonus which I found was that the House of Hope is now accepting students from the university to aid in teaching the clients. The students get credits for their practical work and the clients get extra training. The benefit to me is that the students are from a different culture, have different values, even different religions. Muslim and Christian working side by side for the benefit of the clients. Barriers break down and friendships establish and you realize that people are people and we all need each other. No person should ever be excluded from hearing the Good News of what Jesus did for them. Consider three months.